1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector for electrically connecting an external mating electrical connector to a circuit board on which the electrical connector is mounted, and particularly to an electrical connector having an auxiliary grounding means for providing the electrical engagement between the mated connectors with efficient grounding protection.
2. The Prior Art
A conventional electrical connector 5, as shown in FIG. 1, for electrically connecting an external mating electrical connector to a circuit board on which the electrical connector 5 is mounted, includes a metallic shell defined by five sides and enclosing an insulated housing thereby providing the housing with shielding protection from electrostatic discharge (ESD) of an external electrified body. Furthermore, a pair of spaced board locks 51 respectively extend downward from two bottom edges of said shell for retentive insertion into a pair of apertures defined on the circuit board thereby retaining the electrical connector onto the circuit board, and for electrical engagement with a plurality or grounding traces to provide a basic grounding protection from electromagnetic interference (EMI) of adjacent electric devices by means of draining said electrostatic charges accumulating within said metallic shell. One of the sides of the shell forms a mating surface 50 with a rectangular opening 501 for receipt of said external mating electrical connector. However, as shown in FIG. 2, the mating surface 50 of the electrical connector 5 is generally spaced from a back panel 6 of a computer system in a gap "t" when the circuit board is installed within the computer system. As a result, either EMI or ESD may directly invades the rectangle opening 501 through the gap "t" to interfere with the signal transferred between the mated connectors. Therefore, the grounding protection of the conventional connector is imperfect and need to be improved.
Accordingly, to resolve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector which is equipped with an auxiliary grounding means for electrical engagement with a panel of a computer system to provide a receiving opening of the connector with an enhanced grounding protection in addition to the basic grounding means of conventional connector wherein said receiving opening receives an external mating electrical connector therein.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having an auxiliary grounding means which is electrically engaged with a panel of a computer system for shortening the grounding path.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector with an auxiliary grounding means which includes a contact portion for electrical and resilient engagement with a panel of a computer system in compliance with different gaps between the panel and the connector.